Saturday, January 12, 2013

Hollywood Stars

Most folks have seen Casablanca
so many times that, unless one happened to visit a theater in 1942, we
don’t remember our first encounter with Rick and Ilsa.The film runs together as a nostalgic
and romantic constant, a symbol for moviegoers everywhere of why we love the
picture show.

In his newest series, Hollywood
Stars, artist George Rodrigue pays tribute to the Golden Age of Hollywood with
unique, large-scale works on chrome featuring stars of the Silver Screen.

-click photos to
enlarge-

(pictured, Play it
again, Sam 2013 by George Rodrigue, archival ink on metal, 41x62 inches;
each piece is unique)

The Hollywood characters played by these stars are larger
than life and impervious to time.I thought of this recently as I read Kent Westmoreland’s detective novel
Baronne Street* and slipped
unwittingly into a Bogie accent as Burleigh Drummond, P.I. hunts the killer of
his ex-girlfriend, Coco Robicheaux.The setting is New Orleans, 2000, yet the flavor, regardless of the
wheels, is Casablanca, 1940:

“The T-Bird was probably the only thing I really cared about
and definitely the only commitment I’ve ever made.” –Westmoreland, Baronne Street, 2010

Explains George Rodrigue:

“These movie stars were under contract with major Hollywood
Studios, and their images, in most cases, were managed and promoted as
characters associated with their films.”

Rodrigue’s Play it again,
Sam depicts Rick and Ilsa who, ironically, never utter that most famous of
movie lines.

“I use the Blue Dog on either side of the figures, indicating
one as their Hollywood image and the other as the real person behind the myth.
Just as the dog has two sides, so do these actors, their true self and their
screen self.

“As an example, Marilyn Monroe is the Blue Dog screen image,
while Norma Jean is her Red Dog real self.”

Hollywood Stars is
a unique collection of artwork on metal, not to be confused with an
edition.Although based on the
images within this post, Rodrigue makes each piece individually on chrome,
altering the images slightly by hand using silver paint, so that no two are
identical.He then signs the
finished works with his name and the notation “unique.”

(pictured, Some Like
It Hot, 2013 by George Rodrigue, archival ink on metal, 41x62 inches; note, a version of this image is also available as a silkscreen print; details here-)

After all these years, I should know better than to ask
George about his favorite from this or any series.Yet I wasn’t willing to accept his standard answer, “the
painting I’m working on now,” and pushed him.

“Well, I wasn’t going to show you this ‘til it’s finished,”
he grinned, “but I designed this one just for us.”

7 comments:

First reaction: scroll down, scream with laughter, squeal that there is no one else with that much talent who also has a sense of humor.Second reaction: say, hey, wait a minute, this is a gorgeous painting, encapsulating so much history; whew!

Thanks for the kind words about BARONNE STREET. Coincidentally Casablanca is one of my favorite movies. One of my goals when writing the novel was to keep the dialogue sharp and witty like in Casablanca.

The novel has another Bogart connection in that it is steeped in the tradition of the novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. As you know, Bogart starred in the definitive film adaptions of their novels The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon.

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About Me

I was born on a military base and raised in Fort Walton Beach, FL.
Attended Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, majoring in Art History and English, followed by European Art and Architecture in Vienna, Austria, and graduate school at Tulane University in New Orleans.
Worked for the Rodrigue Gallery in New Orleans and later Carmel, CA, beginning in 1991, and married George Rodrigue in 1997.
I've written guest columns for publications including Gambit, Country Roads Magazine, and Louisiana Cultural Vistas. As of 2017 I live between New Orleans, Louisiana and Santa Fe, New Mexico. I work extensively on George Rodrigue exhibitions and publishing projects, and lecture widely on his art.
I remain involved full-time within Rodrigue gallery operations and the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts, with an ongoing focus on preserving and enhancing Rodrigue's artistic and philanthropic legacy.
My first solo book, "The Other Side of the Painting" (UL Press), was published October 2013.